


On Canvas

by hungrybookworm



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Drawing, Flowers, Fluffy, Gen, Painting, nothing nasty though don't worry, well as fluffy as you can get with Yuuka being Yuuka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 11:09:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11850339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hungrybookworm/pseuds/hungrybookworm
Summary: Yuuka takes up a new hobby, and finds inspiration in an unexpected place.





	On Canvas

At the grand age of one-thousand, three-hundred-and-twenty-nine, Yuuka decided to retire. She fired her staff, sold her large mansion in the Dream World, and gave away most of her furniture and belongings. Then, armed with two suitcases and her favourite parasol, she travelled to Gensokyo, and settled down next to the Garden of the Sun.

Despite the occasional youkai concert, the location was quiet, soothing, and full of beautiful sunflowers come summertime. Yuuka spent many happy hours roaming through the garden, admiring the flowers in each stage of their development, and giving a helping hand to any that struggled. Every season brought new surprises. Occasionally a new, extraordinary flower would be sighted near the Hakurei Shrine, and Yuuka would make the journey over to view it. Simple, spectacular events made every day a pleasure.

But after a while, Yuuka began to feel dissatisfied with merely viewing the flowers. She wished there was a way for her to capture the moment they bloomed, to show other people how gorgeous the landscape looked as the sun lit up the plum blossom, and how the lavender shone so brightly against a dark grey sky. She experimented with photography, but found her prints lacked the emotion of the moment.

So as naturally as a bird taking flight, she began to paint.

Yuuka wasn’t interested in convention. She packed oil paints, acrylics, and watercolours in the same paint box, and used them as she saw fit. Around noon every day, she would head outside and paint. Her art was wonky at first, no different to a child’s scrawls, the flowers barely resembling each other. But time was on her side, and Yuuka practiced every day. Within a few years, her pictures began to convey what she wanted.

“What are you drawing?” asked Medicine Melancholy, peering up from Yuuka’s elbow.

Yuuka smiled down at her. It was a bright summer day, and she’d travelled over to Nameless Hill for her daily drawing. “Your beloved lilies of the valley.”

“Again?” Medicine looked suspicious. “This is the third time this week.”

It was. Yuuka was still sketching the line art for the painting, and already imagining which colours she’d use. “I didn’t get it right the last few times,” she explained. “So I’m going to try again.” 

“Really? But you drew Su-san just fine last time.”

It wasn’t that she struggled to draw the flowers, or the surrounding grass. Yuuka just couldn’t capture the sinister air that drifted around the hill. Her paintings looked more like simple still life pieces than a study of suzuran – the lilies of the valley.

“There’s more to painting than simply copying what’s in front of you.” Yuuka’s smile widened. “Perhaps I need to use a different shade of white. Your skin is such a lovely colour. Why don’t you let me borrow an arm, to grind down into powder?”

“No way!” Medicine clutched her left arm, horrified. “That’s disgusting!”

“You’re a youkai now; it would grow back in no time.” Yuuka had no intention of doing such a thing, of course, but she never tired of teasing people. It kept her young and healthy. It was best to keep the teasing light with Medicine, however. She was a walking biological bomb. “I don’t think I have room to carry your arm on top of everything else today. Maybe we can arrange it for tomorrow?”

“Try it and I’ll poison all your beloved sunflowers!”

“I wouldn’t recommend that.” Yuuka dropped the joke. “Why don’t you go play somewhere else? So I don’t decide to grab your leg instead.”

“This is my hill,” grumbled Medicine, but she was already turning away. “I won’t forget this!”

She said that every time. Yuuka returned to her canvas, and continued sketching. Maybe she needed to change the composition. Would a more dynamic angle improve the picture? She tapped her pencil against her cheek, thinking.

Medicine ran across the suzuran field, frolicking with the tiny doll that followed her everywhere. Yuuka nearly yelled at her, worried she’d trample on the flowers, then noticed something.

“Medicine.” She called out to her. “Can you sit down, right there?” She pointed to a patch of grass among the suzuran.

Medicine frowned. “No way, you’ll cut my arm off!”

“I won’t, I was only teasing.” Yuuka smiled again. “I won’t tease you again if you do this.”

“Hmm.” Medicine thought about it. She glanced at the doll beside her, and it nodded. “All right, if it means you won’t do it again.” Medicine skipped across the slope, and flopped down. “Like this?”

“Yes, just stay there.” Yuuka tried to sketch Medicine’s likeness as quickly as she could. Just as she thought, Medicine’s colours brought out the delicate white of the suzuran perfectly. And her glassy eyes added something uncanny to the scene. Yes, this was what she’d been missing.

“How long for?” asked Medicine.

“Not too long.” Yuuka worked fast. She wasn’t used to drawing people, and getting the anatomy right was challenging. “You won’t need to sit still while I fill in the colours.”

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“You’ll find out.” And Yuuka would be back tomorrow, of course. She’d draw Medicine until she got it just right. She cracked open her paint box, and picked up a paint brush. To mix the colours, and find the perfect shade for Medicine’s dress. “I’ll give you a present if you behave.”

Medicine’s eyes lit up. “Really? Thank you!”

The present would be this painting, of course. For now, Yuuka stopped worrying about getting it right, and let her creativity guide her.


End file.
